It’s the end of the 19th century. Russia is actively building a powerful ocean fleet, with destroyers forming its base. Squadrons of these ships require cruisers for reconnaissance, so the ship-building program included three protected cruisers of the same type named after ancient Roman and Greek goddesses. The lead ship of the series was Diana.

Before World War I, German admirals were sure that, during battle, a larger number of guns and the crew’s excellent battle skills would compensate for the small caliber of Kolberg’s artillery — German cruisers were going to beat the enemy with better rate of fire and shooting accuracy. But the first battles laid these plan to rest.

This ship saw it all: she survived an epic naval battle of Tsushima, revolts during the first Russian revolution, and served in an international squadron under British command. It was no surprise that her loss was a tragedy. Two thirds of the ship's complement, 210 people out of 335, were wounded or did not survive.

Cruiser Ajax is the hero of Royal Navy. The ship opened a list of World War II sea battles by defeating the German “pocket battleship” called Admiral Graf Spee, alone dealt with the squadron of seven Italian ships, took part in the Normandy landings and successfully went through the whole war.

An active participant of the World War I, the Bogatyr was considered the best cruiser of the Russian Empire, and became a prototype for a range of great ships. One of the tasks in her military history was to capture secret documents, which allowed allies to decipher German radio messages without hindrance until the end of the war.

In 1932, the Krasnyi Kavkaz light cruiser became part of the Soviet Navy force of RKKA and paid demonstrative visits to the ports of Greece, Turkey and Italy. The most trying time for her was the World War II, where she — the most modern cruiser of the Soviet Navy —received the Guard status literally on the verge of death.

The Kirov was laid down in 1935, and she promised to become the pride and glory of the Soviet shipbuilding. And she delivered on this promise. The first of surface vessels of the Baltic fleet, she was awarded with the Red Banner order for the successful combat operations during World War II, and her name made history.

An active part of the Russo-Japanese War, the Novik cruiser was known as the fastest one in the world. The last breakthrough of the heroic ship — 3000 miles to Vladivostok around Japan — ended with an unequal battle with the Imperial Japanese Navy. By the decision of the crew, the cruiser was sunk.

The Petropavlovsk was one of the first four battleships of the Russian Navy. However, she gained fame under the name of Marat, becoming the hero of the defence of Leningrad and Kronstadt in the Great Patriotic War. The battleship remained at duty until the siege was fully lifted, and was then transferred to become a training ship.

The Varyag is the hero and pride of the Imperial Russian Navy. At the start of the Russo-Japanese War, she was stationed in the Korean port, and decided in response to the ultimatum from Japanese command to go for a breakthrough; after the unequal battle against fifteen enemy ships, she was sunk but didn’t surrender.

The configuration and history of the Rossia armored cruiser from being laid down to participating in the international grand parade in honor of the sixty year reign of the Queen Victoria to fighting in the Russo-Japanese War and World War I.

At the beginning of the 20th century, naval power of the nations was measured by the number of battleships, and destroyers were the workhorses of the fleet, the ones carrying out routine tasks. One of such hard workers in the Imperial Russian Navy was the General Kondratenko destroyer,the lead ship of the 1905 torpedo cruisers class.

Borodino battleship was the lead ship of her class of five Russian armored battleships, the famous participant of the Battle of Tsushima. She spent 220 days sailing across three oceans to come fight the Japanese enemy ships, and upon arriving at the scene, she led the Russian squadron.

In the 1930s, German designers received a challenging task to develop a destroyer that would be similar to a cruiser and well-suited for conducting raids and hunting enemy supply convoys. So the ship needed good sea-going qualities, a long cruising range, and immensely powerful artillery. One of these ships was Z-32.